Father Pitt

Tag: Postcards

  • Lily Pond at Phipps Conservatory

    The postcard was published without a copyright notice and therefore, by the rules in force at the time, passed into the public domain.

    An undated postcard from the Pittsburg News Company, found stuffed in a book that Father Pitt recently acquired. On the reverse is this legend:

    Schenley Park is Pittsburgh’s first and greatest park. It contains 422 acres, which have been improved by drives, bridges, walks, landscape gardening and the planting of thousands of trees and bushes.

    Note the two spellings on the same card: “Pittsburgh” in the legend, “Pittsburg” in the name of the company. The standardization of the spelling is surprisingly recent. Though the Post Office relented in 1911, after twenty years of suppressing the H, and reverted to the spelling “Pittsburgh,” some local institutions continued spelling the name without the H: the Press, for example, was the “Pittsburg Press” until 1921.

  • Sharpsburg Presbyterian Church

    Sharpsburg Presbyterian Church

    Here is a flourishing web of utility cables with a Gothic church behind them. The view above is old Pa Pitt’s best attempt at duplicating an old postcard view:

    Old postcard of the church

    Not much has changed. The roof (originally slate-shingled) has lost the Gothic ornamentation at the top; exterior steps have been removed; the stonework at the top of the tower has been simplified, possibly after some decay or a lightning strike; and the corner entrance has been turned into a window.

    Window
    Tower
    Entrance

    This church was built in 1905 in a heavy, stony, romantic Gothic that was already somewhat out of fashion. It gives the impression of being equal parts church and castle. It now belongs to the Northern Area Multi-Services Center, a social-services organization that, to judge by its name, offers more than one service.

    Cornerstone
    From the west

    Map.

  • Koppers and Gulf Buildings, with the Federal Reserve Bank

    Koppers and Gulf Bldgs., with the Federal Reserve Bank at the Right

    An old postcard from Father Pitt’s accumulation of Pittsburgh miscellanea; we do not know the date, but it must be before 1952, since the back of the card specifies “PLACE ONE CENT STAMP HERE.”

  • The 1877 Point Bridge

    Point Bridge

    From an old postcard (the back bears a 1906 postmark), this picture gives us a good idea of the scale of freight traffic on the Monongahela. The first Point Bridge was built in 1877 and replaced in 1927; the second one was closed in 1959 but stayed up for eleven more years.